Patch 7.3.5 PTR - Allied Races Unlock Requirements
The latest PTR update updated the banners in both factions' embassies that list the unlock requirements for each Allied Race. These requirements are account wide and not faction specific, meaning you can earn them on an Alliance character and still unlock the Horde Allied Races and vice versa. On top of this, you need to have purchased Battle for Azeroth and have an existing 110 on the server in which you are creating an Allied Race.

After 13 years of World of Warcraft, we continue to be WoWed by all the amazing talent in the community. We’re pleased to share with you the grand-prize winner and 10 runners-up of the World of Warcraft 13th Anniversary Art Contest. We hope you like what you see. Make sure to congratulate them all!

Grand Prize Winner

Tim Guo

Runners-Up

Justin Schmandt

Lily Grasso

Katharina Rose Stalzer

Tina Wei

Phong Le

Michael Rookard

Justin Bechtold

Christian Stewart

Louis Ayson McKeown

Jeanna Dewberry

Patrick "Vanion" Michalczak Passes Away
Patrick Michalczak ran the German WoW fansite Vanion.EU and passed away on January 2. It was always a pleasure to work with him and he will be missed.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Sadly I have to tell you that Patrick "Vanion" Michalczak passed away on Tuesday, January 2, 2018. With this article I once again direct my heartfelt condolences to his family. I am sure that, as members of this community, you guys are as shocked as I am and every other person that has been in contact with Patrick. A lot of questions have followed after the shock. I ask that you give the family time to mourn and stray away from any sort of speculation. Vanion was a well known person and it would be sad if rumors and false news were spread.

Patrick was not only a loved member of the German WoW Community, but also a loved brother, son and friend. I personally can't and won't share further details about this tragic event. Privacy has clear priority in such a matter and I only wrote this article because there was already speculation in the German community and I did not want it to spread further. Please be considerate of the mourning family members and friends. We will talk about the topic in more detail when the time is right.

The work on Vanion.eu will continue just like it has been the past few days. It is also too early to talk about the future of this site, but you will hear from us in the coming weeks. I wish the best for all community members that have to stomach this sudden announcement and suggest lighting a small candle, even just a tea light, in honor of Patrick "Vanion" Michaelczak today. That would be a lovely gesture.

This has never and likely will never be a thing. Physical-CE preorders get nothing until the box arrives on their doorstep for 14 years.

You can preorder digitally and order the physical CE as well. When the physical CE arrives, and you put in the key on your account, they will refund you the digital pre-order price. At least they have been last couple of expacs.

You can preorder digitally and order the physical CE as well. When the physical CE arrives, and you put in the key on your account, they will refund you the digital pre-order price. At least they have been last couple of expacs.

They don’t actually refund you the price, they just give you new key you can sell/share/use yourself for a ‘free’ boost.

Half hoping they’ll throw us a bone and open up pre-purchases for BFA when 7.3.5 goes live so I can start working on Void Elf Rogue and Mage. If not though, eh, I’ll just unsubscribe until they allow it (even if it means waiting for the expac to launch) as its pretty much the end of the cycle and having offed H Argus and no interest in bothering with Mythic raiding, the expansion is over for me personally till I can level my new stuff.

You can preorder digitally and order the physical CE as well. When the physical CE arrives, and you put in the key on your account, they will refund you the digital pre-order price. At least they have been last couple of expacs.

Originally Posted by Boem

They don’t actually refund you the price, they just give you new key you can sell/share/use yourself for a ‘free’ boost.

I think at one point in the past, you could contact customer service and get a refund or at least credit towards your monthly subscription but Boern is correct for how they currently handle things. its better than a poke in the eye, but it means that you have to spend more than twice as much to get your early unlock and the person who gets your refunded code doesnt get access to the bonuses. So one way other the other, someone is getting shafted.

Yeesh. I got sick of legion, so I quit. I was planning on pre-ordering early to come back and play one of the new allied races. Little bit sad that I would have to re-level a class, since I already have one of each class at max. But whatever, I don't mind leveling characters.

But now I have to grind reputation just to even get access to the races I pre-ordered? That's silly at best, and it's really killed my excitement for the expansion.

Having quit when Argus came out, it seems dumb to make returning players grind content they may not be interested in just to get to play one of the expansion races, especially since as has been pointed out most continuous subscribers will already have done this stuff, so it purely penalizes returning players and does not serve as a meaningful achievement for most players.

We're a lot less interested in buying the expansion here, as rolling a new character as one of the affected races was one of the big appeals of the expansion.

You can say "filthy casuals, play the game!" or whatever, but from a marketing point of view this just seems like a dumb move on Blizzard's part.